UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello

i need help with following problem:

i need to update a file containing records in following format:

student1
classa
student2
classb
student3
student4
classc

i need to associate EACH student with a class in my output file ... so for students 3 and 4, i need to create a new separate entries for each one.

here's how the output should look like..

student1
classa
student2
classb
student3
classc
student4
classc

i tried using awk, counters... i'm at a loss!!!

thanks

Could you post your code?

i don't have code that is working... the file contained much more data than above.. this is how i was able to sort it to extract only the relevant data, and now i need to create a separate record for each student in any class..

I understand, what I'm asking you is to post your code so we can try to fix it.
It would be even better if you post a sample from your real original input file
(not only the sorted/extracted part).

We really don't do your homework for you.

If you have working code, please post it and someone might be willing to take a look.

It is against the rules to post homework here, BTW.

okey dokey..

original file format:
:junk1
"student1"
:junk2
blah
blah
blah
:junk3
blah
blah
:junk4
"classa"
:junk1
"student2"
"student3"
:junk2
blah
blah
blah
:junk3
blah
:junk4
"classb"

i wrote an elementary code to create the output of only the student names and classes, without any of the junk...
awk '/:junk1/{
getline
count=0
FS="\""
split($0, arr1, FS)
split(arr1[2], arr2, " ")
if (NF > 1)
{
count ++
print arr2[1]" "arr2[2]":"count
}
count=count
getline
until ($0 == ":junk2")
# print $0
split($0, arr3, FS)
split(arr3[2], arr4, " ")
if (NF > 1)
{
count++
print arr4[1]" "arr4[2]":"count
getline
}
getline
while ($0 != ":junk4")
{
getline
}
getline
print $0
}' infile > tempout

so output of tempout now contains the following
student1 :1 (this is a counter)
"classa"
student2 :1
student3 :2
"classb"

i was hoping to use the coutner in some way to associate how many times the specified class will have to be repeated but i'm stuck!

I'm sorry for offending anyone! i'm not trying to get easy help.. i'm really stuck!